Categories
Conventions News

Last event of 2017: Kids Love Comics!

Wow, 2017 is nearly over, kinda can’t believe it. Whew, what a year. My last event for this year is in Olympia, Washington at the Olympia Timberland Library. The event starts at 1pm, and I’ll be doing a presentation about my work and how I make comics along side comics superstar Kazu Kibuishi, creator of the Amulet series. For more info, check out the Facebook event page here. Hope to see some friendly faces in Washington! 🙂 

Categories
Conventions News

Miami Book Fair!

Hi guys, this coming weekend (November 17th to 18th) I’ll be a guest of the Miami Book Fair! My schedule is below:

Friday, November 17th at 11AM
MAGIC Screening Room, (Building 8, 1st floor)
I’ll be giving a presentation about how I make comics, how you can make comics, and other fun stuff!
Further info here.

Saturday, November 18th at 12PM
Between Two Worlds: Adventure Stories
Wembly Wordsmith Storytorium (in Children’s Alley)
What do you get when you cross a magical pashmina, a book of fanciful stories about real treasures, fairy-tale case files, supernatural abilities, and real-life problems? Find out in these stories of magic, adventure, and super-ness with Nidhi Chanani’s PashminaPeter Lerangis’ Max Tilt: Fire the Depths, Michael Buckley’s The Sisters Grimm series, and Faith Erin Hicks’ The Adventures of Superhero Girl. Further info here

Saturday, November 18th at 2PM
Old Heroes, New Powers
MAGIC Screening Room (Building 8, 1st floor)
As superheroes surge from the standard avenues of comic stores and blockbuster theaters onto the small screen and bookstore shelf, there’s a new hunger for fresh perspectives on what makes heroes super. Faith Erin Hicks (The Adventures of Superhero Girl), Barry Lyga (The Flash: Hocus Pocus) and Jo Whittemore (Supergirl: Age of Atlantis) discuss what they’re doing to deliver that! Moderated by Joan Hilty. More info here.

There will be the opportunity to purchase books and get them signed after each panel. You’re also welcome to bring copies of my books that you already own for signing. Hope to see you there!

 

Categories
News Published Work The Nameless City

Two questions and two announcements!

Hi guys. While going through the messages in my contact form, I noticed two questions popping up frequently. I’m going to answer them here instead of replying to each individual question.

When will The Nameless City 3 be published? The title of the third Nameless City book is The Divided Earth and it will be published by First Second books on September 25th, 2018! I’m thrilled that readers are excited about the series, and are anxious to read the third book. And to answer another question: The Divided Earth marks the end of this trilogy and the conclusion of Kai and Rat’s story. The series was always planned as a trilogy that would finish with book 3, so there are no further books planned. 

I can’t access your old webcomic Demonology 101. Will you be putting it back online? Demonology 101 is 18 years old at this point. I started drawing it in 1999 when I was a teenager. It used to be hosted on another website, but now that host, who very generously provided space for this comic for years without charging me money, has decided to take that site down. So, D101 has passed on into the internet either. As of now, I have no plans to bring it back. I feel like 18 years is long enough for a webcomic to exist on the internet, and I’ve received many wonderful comments from people who have enjoyed reading it. And … well, I feel like it’s just time to let it go. <:)

And now my big announcement! I have been hired by Dark Horse Comics to continue writing the Avatar: The Last Airbender comic book series! Here’s the press release. I’m going to be taking the reins over from Gene Yang, who is a fantastic writer and a friend, and continuing the adventures of Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph and the rest of the Avatar crew. The books will be drawn by an artist I’m a big fan of, Peter Wartman. Not yet sure when the first book (we’re initially doing 3 volumes) will be published. I’ll announce that when I have more info.

The second announcement is the next graphic novel that I’ll be drawing: I’m drawing a comic called Pumpkinheads, written by the amazing author Rainbow Rowell (Eleanor & Park, Fangirl). I’m a huge fan of Rainbow’s work, and getting the chance to work with her is a dream come true. Currently Pumpkinheads is slated for publication in 2019, and you can read the press release about it here

And that’s it! Thanks everyone. 🙂

Categories
Conventions Miscellaneous

Contact form issues

Hi everyone. To make a long story very short, until recently I haven’t been getting messages through my website’s contact form. I am getting them now, there’s nothing actually wrong with the contact form, I had just assumed that the messages sent through it went to my email, and they don’t. They’re stored on my website. Over the past few years I’ve noticed email correspondence dropping off significantly, which I took as a sign that people would rather contact me through twitter or instagram, rather than sending an email. But then I discovered the 600+ unread messages stored in the admin section of my website and oh, the horror. Readers, librarians and potential clients had been trying to get in touch, I just hadn’t been aware. I’m going to do my best to go through the messages sent in the last year and give them a response, but if you’ve sent me something in the last couple years through my website contact form, it’s likely I didn’t see it (until now). I feel pretty terrible about the situation, as a lot of these messages are nice notes about my comics or invitations to speak, and I’m sorry if you sent me something that was important and didn’t get a response. Feel free to either send a message through the contact form (I know how to find those messages now) or email me

Also, I have two events coming up this year. I’m a guest at the Miami Book Fair on November 17th-18th and I’ll be at the comic store Danger Room Comics (in Olympia, WA) on December 2nd for their event Kids Love Comics. I’ll post more info about those events when it gets closer to those dates.

Categories
Conventions The Nameless City

TCAF & VanCAF!

Hi guys, I have two upcoming Canadian conventions where I will be exhibiting, along with my boyfriend Tim. At the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), you can find me on the second level at table #200. Click here for the TCAF map. I’ll have copies of my most recent books (The Stone Heart, The Nameless City, Superhero Girl, Friends with Boys, etc) for sale and I’m happy to sign any books you bring yourself. Tim will also have copies of the self published edition of his webcomic Mush A Mush for sale.
I’ll be on one panel at TCAF at St. Paul’s on Bloor Street. Panel info:
1:00 PM – Adventure Awaits! – Four authors talk about the adventures that occur inside comics — how do you create a plot full of adventures and characters that are ready for adventures? How do you write and draw the fun and excitement of adventures into the page? Adventures await you in this panel discussion. A conversation between Scott Chantler, Faith Erin Hicks, Sara Goetter, and Molly Ostertag; moderated by Alison Wilgus.

At the Vancouver Comic Arts Festival (VanCAF) I’ll be at table N3 in the Gym. Here’s the map. Like TCAF, I’ll have copies of most of my books for sale, and I’m happy to sign any additional books you might bring. I also did a VanCAF poster! I’m happy to sign that as well.
I’m on one panel:
The Terrifying World of Kids Comics
Saturday at 10:30 – 11:15 AM in the Performance Centre
Kids comics are a big deal in the comics business these days. But what do you need to watch out for when you’re creating comics for kids? When it comes to violence, drugs and alcohol, scariness, and mature themes, how much is too much? What’s acceptable/unacceptable to publishers, to parents, and to the kids themselves? Laser Moose and Rabbit Boy creator Doug Savage hosts Strangebeard’s Kelly Tindall, Katie Shanahan (Silly Kingdom), Kean Soo (March Grand Prix), Faith Erin Hicks (The Nameless City), and Mike Lawrence (Star Scouts)
Panelists: Doug Savage, Kelly Tindall, Katie Shanahan, Kean Soo, Faith Erin Hicks, Mike Lawrence

See you there!

Categories
Conventions The Nameless City

LA Times Festival of Books!

I’ll be at the LA Times Festival of Books at the University of Southern California on Saturday, April 22nd.
My one panel is:

YA Graphic Novels: Drawing You In
12pm at the YA Stage
There will be a signing afterwards. Hope to see people there! 

Categories
Conventions Published Work The Nameless City

The Stone Heart (Nameless City 2) Book Tour Dates!

The Stone Heart (The Nameless City book 2) will be published on April 4th, and I’ll be on tour to promote it! You can find me at these events through April and May. Some details will be updated later, so check back here for further info. For the Stone Heart tour, I’ll be talking and signing with a number of fantastic cartoonists and writers. Very grateful all these wonderful creators have taken time out of their busy schedules to talk to me about comics, writing, and other awesome things. Hope to see you at these events!

Tuesday, April 4th
Seattle, WA
Elliott Bay Books with G.Willow Wilson
7:00PM
1521 10th Ave, Seattle, WA

Wednesday, April 5th
San Francisco, CA
Books Inc with Raina Telgemeier
7:00PM
Santa Clara City Library, Central Park Location, 2635 Homestead Road, Santa Clara, 

Thursday, April 6th
Portland, OR
A Children’s Place with Victoria Jamieson
4:00PM
1423 NE Fremont St, Portland, OR

Friday, April 7th
Salt Lake City, UT
King’s English with Shannon Hale
7:00PM
1511 South 1500 East, Salt Lake City, UT

Saturday, April 8th
Omaha, NE
Legend Comics with Rainbow Rowell
5:00-7:00PM
5207 Leavenworth Street, Omaha, NE

Sunday, April 9th
Brooklyn, NYSy
Community Bookstore with Marie Rutkoski
6:00PM
143 7th Avenue, Brooklyn NY

Monday, April 10th
Syracuse, NY
B&N Syracuse with Tamora Pierce
7:00PM
3454 Erie Boulevard East, Dewitt, NY

Thursday, April 13th
Vancouver, BC
Chapters Metrotown with Elieen Cook
7:00PM
Metrotown Eaton Centre, 4700 Kingsway #1174, Burnaby, BC

UPCOMING CONVENTIONS/BOOK FESTIVALS (details to follow):

April 22nd-23rd
LA Times Festival of Books
Los Angeles, CA

May 13th-14th
Toronto Comic Arts Festival (Exhibitor)
Toronto, ON

May 2o-21st
Vancouver Comic Arts Festival (Exhibitor)
Vancouver, BC

 

 

Categories
Conventions The Nameless City

My Last Three Conventions of 2016!

I’ll be at 3 comic conventions/book festivals over the next couple weeks, and then that’s it for me until next year! Whew, 2016 has been quite a year for travel. *_*

Massachusetts Independent Comic Expo (MICE)
October 29-30, Cambridge, MA
Exhibitor (Atrium), table #A31
I’ll have copies of most of my books for sale. Unfortunately I’m not able to offer a credit card reader, so please bring cash if you would like to buy something. 🙂

Events:
Friday, October 28th, 7-9pm

MICE Kick-off Party, Hub Comics

Saturday, October 29th, 4-5pm
Live Drawing Demo
Cartoonariam (Located on the Eisner Level)

Sunday, October 30th, 1-2pm
Panel, Developing the Independent Graphic Novel
Lecture Hall

Thought Bubble
November 5-6th, Leeds, England
Exhibitor, Royal Armories Hall, table #26
I’ll have copies of The Nameless City for sale. I’ll also have a signing with First Second (New Dock Hall, table 165B) on Sunday. They will have copies of my other books available. I’m happy to sign any books bought from First Second at the show (or any books you’ve brought yourself). 🙂

Events:
Saturday, November 5th, 3:10-4pm

Panel, Comics for Everyone
Newsroom, Royal Armories (Forth Floor)

Sunday, November 6th
Signing, First Second Books,
2pm, New Dock Hall, table 165B

Panel, #Artcred
3:10-4pm
Newsroom, Royal Armories (Forth Floor)

Monday, November 7th
Signing at Gosh! Comics, 6-7pm
London, England

Miami Book Fair
November 18-19th, Miami, FL

Events:
November 18th
12:30-1:30PM

Comics Presentation, RSVP required (click to RSVP)
Room 3314, Building 3, 3rd floor

November 19th
10:30-11:30AM

Panel, Brave New Worlds: Building Comic Universes
MAGIC Screening Room (Building 8, 1st Floor)

2pm-3pm
Panel, Adventure is Around the Corner
Wembly Wordsmith’s Storytoriam (in Children’s Alley)

3-4pm
Panel, Unlocking Secret Histories
Wembly Wordsmith’s Storytoriam (in Children’s Alley)

And that’s it! Hope to see people at these conventions! 🙂

Categories
Conventions Published Work The Nameless City

Conventions! (Later half of 2016)

Hi everyone, I’m doing a few upcoming conventions/book festivals this fall. Some of the info is not yet confirmed and will be updated later. But here’s where you can find me:

SPX! (Small Press Expo)
Saturday, September 17, Bethesda, Maryland
Signing at the CBLDF table (W84), 1-2pm
All Ages Graphic Noveling (panel), SPX/White Oak Room, 6-7pm
**Note: I am not tabling at SPX, but my books will be for sale at the CBLDF signing.**

Brooklyn Book Festival
Sunday, September 18th, Brooklyn, NY
Guest Bookseller, Macmillan booth #512, 11am-12pm
Let Me Show You My World (panel), 2pm
Saint Ann’s School Rotunda, 129 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn, NY

Word on the Street Vancouver
Sunday, September 25, Vancouver, British Columbia
Comic presentation, 12:05-12:30pm, Peter Kaye Room

Vancouver Writer’s Festival
Tuesday, October 18th, Vancouver, British Columbia
Illustrated Imaginations, 10AM-11:30AM, Studio 1398
**You must register to attend this event.**

Massachusetts Comic Expo (MICE)
Saturday & Sunday, October 29th-30th, Cambridge, MA
**I will be tabling at this convention, schedule to come!**

Thought Bubble
Saturday & Sunday, November 5th-6th, Leeds, England
**Schedule to come!**

Categories
Making Comics

Making Comics: Emotion and pacing in comics

One of the reasons that I love comics so much is that there are many valid ways to approach the medium. When I make comics, the parts I’m most concerned with are character and story. Everything I draw on the comic page is in service to character and story. Because of my focus on those two elements over, say, experimenting with my art and page structure, I will sometimes get criticism that my work is safe or boring. This is probably fair criticism! I don’t do a lot of experimenting with paneling or challenging storytelling or explicitly challenging artwork in my comics, because right now that’s not what I’m interested in. Maybe I will be more experimental someday, but not right now, with the kind of stories I want to tell. 🙂

When I make a comic, my goal is for my readers to be engaged with the story I’m telling, and the characters in that story. That’s also what I look for when I want to read a good comic. I want characters to love, I want a story to be engaged with.

For the most part, I struggle with drawing comics (most artists do, if we’re honest ;)), but there are some parts of comics I think I have a good handle on. I feel like I’m strongest when portraying emotion on the page, and I’m good at drawing those scenes out and making the reader feel what my characters are going through. Some of the techniques I use to convey emotion came from being obsessed with movies when I was a teenager, and some techniques are stolen from my holy trinity of influences: Jeff Smith (Bone), Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist) and Naoki Urasawa (Monster, Pluto, 20th Century Boys).

Of the three artists I’ve mentioned, I consider Urasawa especially to be a master of emotion and pacing. When I first started reading his comics, it was like light struck my brain; finally I saw what I’d been trying to do for years right there on the comic page in front of me! I like the way he lays out his emotional scenes a lot. Here’s an example (read right to left):

Faith Erin Hicks presents Urasawa example of emotion and pacing

Urasawa uses repeating panels and decompression to draw out the emotions of a scene. In this single page there isn’t a lot of movement. It’s literally just two characters staring at each other, but the tension rises going from panel 1 to panel five. Gesicht (the man)’s expression doesn’t change between panels two and five, but we literally feel his anger rising off-panel, concluding in the close up in panel 5.

There’s an excellent You Tube channel called Every Frame a Painting (I’m sure you’ve heard of it, but if you haven’t, please go watch all the videos! There aren’t many, and they’re all really informative). My favourite video is this one, about editing:

This video hit on something that I strive for in my comics: emotion takes time. When I draw a scene that is emotional, when characters are struggling with something, or celebrating something, or being challenged, I want my readers to feel what the character is feeling, and one of the best ways to do that, for me, is to take my time. To give that emotion time to breathe on the page.

I’m going to use some scenes in my graphic novel The Nameless City to illustrate how I use decompression and pacing to underscore the emotion in my comics. To avoid spoilers and because this is getting a little long, I’m going to put it under a cut. Please read on! 🙂

Hello again! In The Nameless City, one of the main characters, Rat, lives in a monastery, because she’s an orphan. She seems to have a good relationship with one of the monks in particular, Joah. When we first see them together, they act like this:

Faith Erin Hicks presents Rat and Joah from The Nameless City

Up until this point in the story, Rat hasn’t been particularly nice or affectionate to anyone, but it’s different with Joah. And it’s hopefully obvious from these two panels that he’s fond of her too. Rat and Joah don’t have a lot of scenes together throughout the course of the book, so I use their body language to immediately establish their bond. Rat is very different with Joah than she is with Kai, who she’s either been mean to or openly mocked for most of their interactions.

There are a couple more scenes where Joah and Rat interact, and in those scenes I visually drive home their relationship. Rat is more of a kid around him, bouncing on her toes, asking if there’s anything to eat:

Faith Erin Hicks shows example of how Joah and Rat interact in The Nameless City

… and Joah’s kind of a dick to Kai at first, which Rat thinks is hilarious:

Faith Erin Hicks shows example of how Joah and Rat interact in The Nameless City

So basically we have a fairly straightforward Surrogate Dad & Daughter relationship. Rat’s parents are dead, and she comments that the monks are “nice,” but we don’t really see her interacting with anyone but Joah. He’s her connection to the monastery and the monks, and a tiny bit of parental oversight in her unsupervised life. Until he goes too far, and really tried to parent her, and Rat loses her shit:

Faith Erin Hicks shows Rat of The Nameless City showing great emotion

Oops.

Anyway, this very long set up finally brings us to this scene, which is where I get to unleash my love of decompression and silent emotional beats.

Faith Erin Hicks shows more examples of emotion and pacing from The Nameless City

(Above is page 136 and below is page 137 in The Nameless City. Just wanted to be clear where the pages begin & end!)

Faith Erin Hicks shows more examples of emotion and pacing from The Nameless City

The story beats on these two pages are quite slow, and I spend two pages on a part of the story where it might be more efficient to use only one or two panels. There are many kinds of scenes where it is appropriate to speed things along more quickly (for example, a fight scene, or a scene where characters are doing something quickly), but for this particular scene, I wanted the fallout from Rat’s emotional outburst to be made very clear. Kai gets three silent panels at the beginning of page 136 to walk back to his home and stare out the window, thinking about his role in the fight, and Rat and Joah get a page and a half to deal (poorly) with their relationship.

The paneling of page 137 is particularly important. Comic paneling has kind of a rhythm to it, and in my own dumb shorthand, I think of widescreen panels (panels that reach horizontally across the length of the comic page) as “boom” panels. I know, it’s silly! But generally speaking, readers tend to spend more time looking at large panels, so they “read” as more important than smaller ones. Large panels slow the reader’s eye down. They’re basically like the cartoonist is saying “hey! There’s something extra important happening in this panel! Or here’s an establishing shot I spent six hours drawing!” The first and fourth panel of page 137 is me, the cartoonist, jumping in and being like “BOOM! pay attention to this emotional stuff! BOOM!” XD But here’s the tricky thing: overusing large panels can lessen their importance, which is why comics that only use full-page-width “widescreen panels” can look stagnant. It’s a complex balance.

My hope is that my readers will feel the emotional complexity of the relationship between these two characters on page 137. Through the paneling, through Rat’s body language, and through Joah’s body language. Up until this point, Rat and Joah seem to have a good relationship. He looks after her a little bit, and she seems very fond of him. Until she very pointedly reminded him that he’s not actually her parents and probably has no business telling her what to do. So at the start of page 137, Rat is trying to apologize, to make things as they were. But Joah just turns away from her and goes back to his gardening, leaving Rat standing beside him, starting to cry. The scene ends on this page, and we don’t see what happens afterwards. There is repetition in the wide “boom” panels at the top and bottom of the page, and the only dialogue spoken is Joah saying “thank you” in panel two.

Emotion takes time! If I had been super efficient with these pages and wrapped everything up in a couple of panels, I feel like this scene would have less impact. Hopefully when a reader looks at this page, they’ll feel something for these characters and their struggles. That is my goal with every graphic novel I create, to make you feel something. 🙂

Anyway! These are my thoughts on decompression, paneling and emotion in my comics. I hope you enjoyed them. 🙂